


Insignificant Traces

by H4R1N3ZUme



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Flash Fic, Gen, Urban Legends, Yixing's Birthday Week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:01:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27023188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/H4R1N3ZUme/pseuds/H4R1N3ZUme
Summary: Every evening Yixing returns to his empty apartment.But sometimes it doesn't seem as devoid of activity as he might have dreaded.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6
Collections: Challenge #8 — Tales of the Past





	Insignificant Traces

“I'm home”, he said to no-one in particular, before stepping out of his shoes and trudging down the hall. 

He always looked forward to his quiet apartment while tuning out the other commuters, but once the door closed behind him, the silence felt like a spiderweb, restricting his every move. He quickly washed his hands before putting on some music to fill the emptiness. 

He caught the smell after stepping into the kitchen to put the rest of his take-out in the fridge.

It had been some time since he had cooked himself. His grandmother would be ashamed of him, if she ever found out how little he used the skills she had taught him back home. So with the windows and doors closed all day, he couldn't fathom the scent of garlic and sesame lingering over his kitchen counters.

Yixing rubbed his eyes. 

Maybe he was just tired. 

The project his team had been working on had finally had its presentation today and the clients seemed overall happy, even though he would have to spend the next couple of days adjusting some details. 

It had been weeks since he had been free to properly clean anything at home. The garbage disposal he could manage on the way out, but the rest... Yixing looked around, noticing the distinct lack of dust on shelves and surfaces. 

That didn't seem right...

He decided to just take a shower and head off to bed. Maybe after a good night's sleep he would remember, when he had managed to clean even the shower drain of its usual grind.

The next morning the ear-splitting beeps emanating from his phone had him groaning. He knew, he shouldn't have succumbed to the lure of the snooze button, but by now he only faintly remembered the time, when he could still get up at the first ring of the alarm.

He was staring bleary-eyed at his phone contemplating a change of alarm sound, when something lying under his chest of drawers caught his eyes. 

The sunlight falling on that corner of the room couldn't quite reach it, but it looked like a minute black box. 

He crawled out of bed, the intrigue succeeding where his alarm had failed. He had to get on his hands and knees and only with his head touching the ground could he see the little object in question. After he pulled it out, he held it between his thumb and index. It was a black piece of plastic, rectangular and hollow. It reminded him of a cap of something.

He held it in his hand and tried to remember whether he had actually seen it before. 

Nothing came to mind. 

Yixing put the mysterious find on the kitchen counter, when he set about making his morning coffee and warmed up the left-overs. He was still mulling over the possibilities, slowly chewing on the last pieces of day-old noodles, when his eyes fell on the clock and he jumped at how late it already was. Cursing quietly he bolted off to the bathroom and put on his office attire, before rushing out of the apartment. 

With his focus on making his usual commute, the little trinket slipped his mind.

He only remembered it, when he was on his way home. The last half of the train ride he spend on further meditating on what it could be part of, but still came up blank.

This evening Yixing returned earlier than usual and with time to spare he decided to do some grocery shopping. A few of his colleagues were already displaying the first signs of seasonal flu, so he thought he better stack up on ginger and healthy foods, just in case he caught it too. 

While walking along the aisle of cleaning products, he remembered his strangely immaculate apartment back home and how he should properly check on that. 

When he didn't see the little black piece, while unpacking his shopping, he first thought, he had knocked it down somehow. But a thorough search of the kitchen didn't yield any results and Yixing was more puzzled than ever.

Had he started seeing things?

That Friday the flu hit home. 

He was already feeling hot and slightly woozy throughout the day, so it was no surprised, that he had to lean on the wall to take off his shoes, after he had stumbled into his desolate entranceway that evening.

Yixing only managed to drink a glass of water, before he fell into a fevered slumber. He was waking up regularly from being too warm at one time and too cold the next.

Sometime later he thought he heard somebody moving around his room, but couldn't be sure before sleep pulled him under again.

The next time he woke up, he could feel something cooling on his forehead. He opened his eyes to see the silhouette of a person sitting next to his bed illuminated only by their open laptop.

Yixing's sharp intake of breath must have alerted them, because in the next second they turned and Yixing had to question his sanity, when he recognized his former neighbour Kyungsoo looking at him with concern.

His raw throat only let him croak, “Kyungsoo, what-” before the dark haired visitor switched on a lamp and handed him a glass of water.

“Sorry, to suddenly appear like this, Yixing. But I was worried about you.” 

Kyungsoo's voice still had that smooth quality Yixing remembered, although there seemed to be a trace of uneasiness in the way he spoke. 

“Will you take some medicine? I will explain everything in the morning, I promise.”

Maybe it was the lamp light, but he looked paler than before, making his neck tattoo stand out even more. Yixing could feel his head throbbing and his exhausted body crying for more rest, so he accepted the tablet and lay back down.

Kyungsoo switched off the light. His rapid keyboard typing kept Yixing company through the silent night and lulled him back to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Out of all the ideas I accumulated after the theme was decided, of course I go with the one I got, when I had already chosen the pictures for this challenge. So you can see, why this is a bit of a mess... but I still hope, you could enjoy reading it a little. :)
> 
> The urban legend I tried to reference here is the one of somebody secretly living in your house.  
> That can be a very scary scenario for some people, but I didn't want to depict it as such and tried to instead show it as a maybe welcome departure from isolation and loneliness. I thought about it for myself, but I couldn't get into why Soo did it. Maybe you have a theory?
> 
> Thank you to the mods for another great round and a little extension for me! <3<3<3


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